Christmas up in Flames
by Y.K.Willstone
Summary: This is a one shot for Morning Lilies Forgotten Family Ties Competition. Includes rebelling teen, fire and "Are you a wizard or not?" R&R thanks Rated T cos I'm paranoid. Nothing OTT at all and I really must be paranoid to say it's a T.


**This is a response to The Forgotten Family Ties Challenge set by Morning Lilies. Go and have a look at some of the other fics (as well as this one) as they are all really good. The two people that I had to use were Molly Weasley 2****nd**** and James Sirius Potter. Hope you enjoy.**

**DISCLAIMER: Unless I've aged about 30 years, I don't own Harry Potter.**

It was the first day of Christmas and, in the Potter home, everyone was asleep, all except James Potter. An exhausted James Sirius Potter walked into the living room and collapsed onto the couch, he had just come home from his first term in the Auror training camp and was feeling dead on his feet. He knew that if he put the Television on his Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron would kill him as they were sleeping in the room next to the living room. Every year Harry Potter, James' father, would hold an annual party on the 12th day of Christmas (Christmas day). The party was always a high point in the calendar for all of the Potters and the Weasleys as it meant a chance to get drunk (James), blow things up without getting told off (Albus, George and George's family) and find out who their children were going out with (all the parents).

James was about to fall asleep when there was a noise from upstairs, a loud BANG. James just thought that Albus was up and trying some of George's experiments. Well, at least he did until he heard a girl scream. He ran out of his room and up the Potter Manor staircases. As he reached the middle of the stairs he was suddenly caught in a blaze of orange light "SHIT," he cursed. It was coming out of one of the topmost doors in the manor. James wasn't sure if anyone was in that part of the manor, wasn't that where Percy's kids were meant to stay, and they weren't due till Saturday.

The fire alarm hadn't gone off but he was going to have to get everyone out. James raised his wand to his throat and yelled "SONORUS!" as soon as he had done that he yelled "EVERYBODY, FIRE IN THE MANOR. FIRE IN THE MANOR. EVERYBODY OUT!" He heard the sound of people running. Soon what looked like the entire family was out running down the stairs. James looked around for a second before following everyone out the door. He was just about to get out the door when he felt his Dad's hand on his shoulder.

"James!" yelled his Dad, "Where the blazes is the fire?" just as his Dad said this the fire, which had been creeping down the stairs spread to the living room, cutting off the exit. "Never mind!" said his Dad as they both ran to the door only to find that the fire had cut them off. "Where did the fire start?" yelled Harry.

"Top floor!" yelled James as they headed to the stairs down to the house elves chambers. They paused as Harry found the right key, in that pause they heard something that made their hearts seem to stop in their chests. Another scream came from upstairs. A young girls scream of terror. James and Harry wheeled around and looked at each other. "I thought that Molly and Lucy weren't meant to be here until later on in the week?"

"Molly came ahead; she came straight from the Hogwarts Express. Lucy was meant to but she forgot some things and is coming with her parents," explained Harry as they made their ways up to the second floor of the manor "Well, she might be coming with her parents if there's a manor to come to."

The fire was on all sides of them as they ran up the stairs Molly's screams where getting louder now. However, as they came to the third lading James ran up faster than Harry did. The part of the floor fell away in-between them. "You run and get her out of there!" commanded Harry to his son "I'll go out the house-elves way and get help!"

"See you in a minute!" screamed James as more floor falling made him back away from his dad "I hope," he muttered under his breath so that his dad didn't hear. James raced up the stairs taking them two at a time. Running through walls of flames, jumping across gaps in the stairway he reached the fifth and final floor and tried the door, it crumpled beneath his hand as soon as it made contact with the door.

James rushed into the hallway listening for something to tell him where his cousin was. There was a moment where all he could here was the cracking of flames and then there was something, a round of sobs coming from a doorway halfway down the corridor. There were flames licking all around the door, trying to get into the room but failing to. Something was stopping the flames getting into the room. James drove at the door and went straight through the door with the force of a relative trying to save family (so basically the force of a wild bull). There was a long loud scream as the fourteen year old Molly Weasley thought that her safe haven from the fire was compromised. James ran over to the Red head and held her close trying to calm her down.

They were in the room that Molly had decorated herself. Before the fire you would have seen all the pictures of mythological creatures that Molly herself had painted. Now, in the middle of the fire, all James could see was thick smoke which only enabled him to see his cousin and (just about) the door. "How did you get up here?" Molly asked into James' shoulder.

"I ran."

"Up all those stairs?" asked Lily sounding awestruck.

"Yeah of course," said James, trying to sound his usual calm self "I couldn't let my baby cousin get fried, you see your way too cool for me to allow that to happen."

Molly laughed nervously, a laugh that was full of pressure and worry and that only made James worry more about his cousin. "How did the fire start?" asked James wanting to know how this mess all started.

"I don't know," said Molly "I was coming back from getting a glass of water from the bathroom up here when I saw a small fire on the floor coming out of Lucy's room. I looked in there and I think I saw the words 'murderers' written in black. By the time I had seen the writing the fire had spread. I ran through the flames and placed a rag by the door (James looked around and saw said rag burning away) to stop the smoke," Molly stopped to take in a smoke filled breath "I then moved everything around to stop the fire, if it did get in, that it wouldn't spread (as she said this the paint on the other side of the room started to catch fire). I screamed quite allot."

"So," said James, trying to think of something that would take Molly's mind off the impending fire, they were now sitting side to side with their backs to the wall "Why did you come here so early, if you came as soon as you got off the Hogwarts express why didn't your sister." James knew the answer but he was surprised when Molly turned to him.

"Uncle Harry must have already told you the 'reason' my sister isn't here with me," she looked at James "I didn't come straight away off the Hogwarts express. I did go home, but mum and dad where telling me about all the things that they had planned and I sort of ran away."

"Why did you do that?" asked James in shock, running away wasn't the sort of thing that his cousin did. She usually faced troubles straight on, not running away from it "I'm just tired of my parents organising my life like it's theirs!" said Molly exasperated "Did you know that in year two, when we got to choose our subjects my parents made all of my decisions for me? That when it came to classes I have to get E's in everything otherwise I face the risk of getting something taken away from me – last time I got an A in an assignment I was grounded for two months until I got my grades back up to where they 'should be'." Molly's voice was thick with disgust aimed at her parents. The fire crackled menacingly at them from the other side of the room like one of the evil witches in muggle stories.

"I wish there was a way that I could keep this fire back," said James and he stretched his legs out. Molly started to laugh "What're you finding so funny?" asked James as his cousin started to laugh even louder.

"Well, oh wise one," Molly said with as much sarcasm as a fourteen year old could use "There is a thing that could have helped you and Uncle Harry."

"Yes, what?" said James looking at his cousin.

"It is a great thing that only wise ones such as you can use."

"What is it, come on Molly, I haven't got forever for you to tell me what it there is a thing called burning that me and you will be doing in a minute!" But Molly wasn't going to let this thing go.

"It can save you from devil snare, it can _stun_ you into silence," James just looked at her as if she was mad.

"And I shall tell it to you in the immortal words..." Molly paused for effect "ARE YOU A WIZARD OR NOT!"

James looked at her in shock "Bloody Hell," he muttered under his breath and then, turning to Molly he said "Has anyone ever told you how genius you are sometimes."

"Only sometimes?" said Molly looking scandalised as James at long last, pulled out his wand and cast aguamenti on the flames, and the two cousins ran down the Potter manor stairs James casting charm after charm to hold his home up and Molly Weasley the 2nd feeling safe with her cousin at her side, even though he could be a little thick at times.

**There, finished, hope you liked it. Not something that I would have written if it hadn't been in a challenge, but hay, that's what challenges are for. This is only a one-shot. See You Round and MERRY CHRISTMAS!**


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